The Texas delegation has three of the biggest talkers in the entire House of Representatives: Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston and Ted Poe of Humble.

But what about everyone else?

Seven of Texas’ 36 House members have spent five minutes or less in speeches on the House floor so far this year. And some of them are among the state’s more prominent lawmakers: John Culberson of Houston, Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, John Carter of Round Rock, Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, Kenny Marchant of Carrollton, Filemon Vela of Brownsville and Henry Cuellar of Laredo.

The most frequent speaker? Jackson Lee, with 40 speeches, followed by Poe, with 37, and Gohmert, with 24.

But what the conservative Tyler Republican lacks in number of speeches, he makes up with sheer windpower. He has spent ten hours speaking on the House floor this year, to four for Jackson Lee and two for Poe and Rep. Pete Olson of Sugar Land. Only two other Texas lawmakers — Michael Burgess of Lewisville and Jeb Hensarling of Dallas — have topped an hour of floor speeches.

So whose speeches are the longest? Again, Gohmert is a contender, with an average of 25 minutes per speech. But Olson tops him, clocking in at about 25 minutes and 40 seconds per oration.

Jackson Lee, at 6 minutes per pop, and Poe, at a bit more than 3 minutes, are far more concise in their commentaries.

The most concise? Republican Marchant and Democratic freshmen Castro, Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Beto O’Rourke of El Paso — all of whom average between 1 and 2 minutes per speech.

O’Rourke does hold the distinction of being the most active freshman on the House floor, with 15 speeches.

We invite you to explore our interactive graphic. Check out the tabs for number of speeches, total speaking time, average length of speeches, and then a district-by-district summary of the speaking records of each Texas lawmaker.